


Second Look

by Dorksidefiker



Category: MC2 (Marvel), Marvel (Comics), Spider-Girl
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 14:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorksidefiker/pseuds/Dorksidefiker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, you have to see someone as they aren’t before you can seem them as they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Look

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Liliaeth and the Heroine_Fest LJ community.

Jacob Grimm stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, listening with half an ear to Aunt Lyja chew Torus out over playing with things in Uncle Reed’s laboratory. As far as accidents went, this one wasn’t too bad, at least as far as everyone else was concerned. Jake wasn’t sure how he felt about it, besides _small_. He was barely even six feet tall now, and he was all soft and pink and squishy. He had hair now, a head full of sandy stuff that was kind of curly; not as much as his mom’s, not the full on curls Aunt Lyja sometimes sported. He ran a freckle covered hand through the soft stuff, catching his lower lip between his teeth in a way he’d seen his sister do often.  
  
“Ow!”  
  
Jake brought his hand up to his mouth, touching his injured lower lip. He’d bit down too hard.  
  
“Tell me this is temporary,” he muttered to the strange reflection in front of him.  
  
“Jake?” his dad called, knocking on the bathroom door. “You okay, kiddo?”  
  
 _Time to go reassure him_ , Jake thought, turning away from the mirror and opening the door. His father let out a small gasp, eyes widening. “Jake-!”  
  
Jake shuffled his feet, feeling heat rising to his face. His dad just stared at him, the moment stretching out into a decidedly uncomfortable area.  
  
“Is it permanent?” Ben Grimm breathed, turning to Lyja. “Do you think-?”  
  
“Unlikely,” Lyja said, and Jake felt the tightness in his chest loosen. He saw his father’s disappointed look, but Jake didn’t care – he was gonna be _himself_ again.  
  
“How long?” he asked.  
  
“We need to do more tests,” Lyja said, “but I’d say two weeks.”  
  
“It’s really weird,” Torus added, wrinkling his nose as he looked Jake up and down.  
  
“You,” Lyja said sharply, taking her son by the shoulder. “Room. Now.”  
***  
  
Jake kept starting every time he caught his reflection in a piece of glass or metal. Going out like this had been Aunt Lyja’s idea, to help him get a sense of the whole ‘ normal’ thing. He felt _weird_ , but nobody seemed to notice. Sure, he kept getting looks, but they were completely different from the looks he was used to. A rumbling stomach drove Jake into a coffee shop full of teenagers. Self-consciously, he bought himself a sandwich and a soda, then settled down at one of the few empty tables in the place to watch the proverbial tide roll in and out.  
  
“Mind if I sit?”  
  
Jake nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized that the pretty brunette was talking to _him_. “Huh? Oh. Sure.”  
  
She dropped gracefully into the seat across from him with a smile. “Hi, I’m May.”  
  
“Jake,” he said. “Hi.”  
  
***  
  
They ended up talking for hours, and Jake left with plans to meet May again tomorrow, which he did. She ended up being almost two hours late, and looked exhausted. When he got home, much later, his dad mentioned that they’d teamed up with Spider-Girl to fight some snake themed cult. Jake had come back with plans for another date in two days, at Coney Island. On the whole, he thought he’d gotten the better deal.  
  
May was a junior at Midtown High, her parents were happily married, and she had a little brother named Benjamin. She was _incredibly_ bad about keeping dates, but Jake considered it a fair trade, since he was still trying to figure out how to tell her that him looking like he did was temporary, and that he was actually a member of the Fantastic Five. He _really_ didn’t like not telling her, but he also _really_ liked May and didn’t want to scare her off.  
  
Which was why he still hadn’t told her by the morning he’d woken up to find himself once again orange and rocky.  
  
“Oh _no_.”  
  
***  
  
“I’m going back to my mom’s,” Jake lied. “It’s just… not really working for me here. And I miss my sister and stuff.” A half truth.  
  
“Jake, I – When do you leave?”  
  
Oh crap. “I’m almost at the airport now. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”  
  
“Oh. I… there are a lot of things I wanted to tell you, Jake.”  
  
“Me too, May.”  
  
“You’ve got my e-mail, right?”  
  
“Yeah,” Jake said softly.  
  
“Okay. Lemme know when you get home?”  
  
***  
  
“Why would Spider-Girl want to talk to _you_?” Torus demanded, pouncing on Jake and clinging in a way only someone who could grow suckers on their hands could.  
  
Jake opened his mouth to let the shape shifter have a scathing retort, then stopped. “Why _would_ Spider-Girl wanna talk to me?”  
  
“I dunno, that’s why I asked _you_.”  
  
“Wait.” Jake held up a hand. “Spider-Girl is _here_? And she wants to talk to _me_?”  
  
“That’s what I said,” Torus huffed indignantly. “She’s waiting for you.”  
  
It took twenty minutes after that to convince Torus that it _really_ wasn’t necessary for him to be there. Then came a weird, awkward silence that Jake really didn’t understand. Spider-Girl felt uncomfortable about something, but Jake, for the life of him, couldn’t imagine what that could possibly be.  
  
“Look,” Spider-Girl said finally, “there’s something you should know.”  
  
Then she reached up and pulled off her mask. “I should have told you sooner,” May said quietly. “That I knew who you were. Not that I figured it out right away, in fact I didn’t get it until you told me your last name.” She smiled ruefully. “After that, I… I was just having fun, and I didn’t want to ruin that, you know? You’re the first guy I’ve dated since I became Spider-Girl that didn’t _care_ that I was always late, even without knowing. And you’re sweet, and funny…”  
  
“I sense a ‘but’ in there somewhere,” Jake managed to say, even though his mind was whirling around in all sorts of strange directions.  
  
“Actually, there isn’t.”  
  
Jake sat down on the nearest bit of furniture, which creaked ominously beneath his weight. “Why are you telling me this _now_?”  
  
“Because… I _like_ you.” May said. “Not just you when you looked like a regular human, but _you_. And I’d like to keep seeing you. _You_ , not the guy that you looked like. If you’re okay with this, that is.” She gestured towards the mask in her hand.  
  
“Um. I. I think I could work with that.”


End file.
